


Mist and Foam

by Robin



Category: Den lille Havfrue | The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen, Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Arguably unhappy ending, Fairy Tale Retellings, M/M, Sort of genderswap, The little mermaid is male, minor gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:54:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24499768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robin/pseuds/Robin
Summary: 'Do you love me?' He wanted to ask, but his voice had been exchanged, bartered for these legs, and he knew, anyway, the answer.
Kudos: 3





	Mist and Foam

'Do you love me?' He wanted to ask, but his voice had been exchanged, bartered for these legs, and he knew, anyway, the answer.

The dagger carved an elegantly tortured path through skin, muscle, and bone, to the prize underneath, pulsing, whispering.

He ignored the screams and cries, the dying gasps and whimpers. Blood seeped into his skin as he pried the heart out. Cradling it carefully in his hands, he let the viscous liquid drip down onto his legs. Faintly, they began to glow.

The body was, mercifully, silent. He allowed himself only a few moments to remember, and to grieve. When those moments had passed, he pressed a kiss on the still-warm forehead in farewell.

The trip back home, to the sea, was the opposite of his arrival so many months ago. At that time, despite his tension and fear, his eyes had darted around in bewildered curiosity at all of the new sights and sensations. Now, his gaze was singularly focused on the horizon, uncaring of anything else. He would never come back to these lands, and any fascination with them he once may have had, was dead.

His lover, the prince, was waiting for him. For it.

"My love," said the prince, gazing up at him from the dark waters. "You have finally returned."

He stood on the dock, holding out the bloody heart. The outer layer melted, dripping into the waves below, leaving only the shining core, the fragmented half of a soul. Attracted by its counterpart, it flew into his lover's chest. He watched the prince absorb it, shuddering as he was made complete once more.

The transformation magic activated, his legs trembling as they shifted into their original form. He dove cleanly through the surface, his tail barely making a splash as it entered behind him.

His lover embraced him, kissed him, as they sank deeper to safety, carried by currents further and further away from the shore. "Thank you, my love." And then, feverishly, "I missed you so much."

He returned the fervent caresses, burying his face in the other's hair, breathing in the scent of his lover, whom he cherished so deeply.

Everything, after all, had been for the prince. Cursed at birth, half of his soul was torn from him to live as a separate being on land; without it, the prince would eventually weaken and die.

In the prince's place, he had offered himself to the witch, though his lover had pleaded against it.

His voice for legs; a killing for a lost soul fragment. It was supposed to be simple.

Yet the human had been unexpectedly kind and warm; just and fair; forthright and intelligent; beautiful as a sunrise. The man openly shared his joys and, later, when they had grown closer, his private sorrows; he showed him so many new experiences and wonders in this strange but beautiful world, a world that he only grown to love because of this man. The human and the prince were so very alike, though it made sense; two halves of the same soul. It had been easy to mistake that gentle, bright kindness for something more, to believe that this man loved him just the same.

But the delusion had to finally end. That radiant smile directed towards another was one that he had never seen before. Not for him. Never for him. It was a reminder that he did not belong here. His fantasies dissipated like mist and foam in the early morning.

Now, he rested his head against the prince's chest, listening to the beating, rejoined heart. "I love you." The first words from his returned voice. Clinging tightly, he prayed for them to never be parted again.

And he buried, deep inside him, the confession that he could never admit.

'If your other self had loved me, I would have stayed.'


End file.
